Who are these guys? Academics, maybe. They have that studious look, and college academics to boot. Women have been teaching in elementary and high schools since the 19th century, but all-male faculties? Considering this photo looks like it's from the thirties or forties, an all-male faculty screams university. But then again, maybe these are businessmen of some kind. The writing on the blackboard is difficult to make out, but the word "plant" can be read, and a few dollar signs as well.
Written on the back, "Jan 15, 71. St Therese, Quebec. Darlene & friend of Darlene, Jo-anne & Daddy." Well, I guess a white January rather than a white Christmas. Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, is a suburb of Montreal, population 26,533 as of the 2021 census. It's also the snowblower capital of the world. Manufacturing, not ownership. Are they skating on the local hockey rink?
I know nothing about this photo. For all I know, it's a picture of three people at a church conference. Still, it, at least to me, has a 1970s cocaine fueled party feel to it. The sort of past people hide from their children. Why, when I was your age, I stayed home and read the Bible. I didn't drink or use drugs.
More often than not, there really isn't much research that can be done on the old photos in my collection. But every once in a while, there are things I can look into. With the gothic style lettering on the building and the style of architecture, I was sure this photo must have been taken in Germany, but then I went to Google Translate and typed in Raadskelde and it came up as Dutch, and the meaning, council cellar. Then, after scanning the picture, and blowing it up a bit, it looked like there might be an extra letter at the end. So, I started typing different possibilities, and Raadskelder was the only word that worked. Again, it translated as council cellar, but this time in Afrikaans. I suppose that makes sense. After all, Afrikaans is a Dutch dialect. So, was this picture taken in the Netherlands, or South Africa?
I don't know when or where this photo was taken, but if I were to guess, I would say World War 1. The helmets don't look like the flat type worn by the U.S. or British armies. I think, though I'm not sure, these are French troops.
Okay. I admit it. I have no idea if this photo was taken on a farm. But the out-of-focus background doesn't show any other houses, so it was taken somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, and since America was far more rural when this picture was made than it is now, a farm is a reasonable guess.
Not the United States Navy. At least I don't think so. The formal, white uniform makes me think passenger ship.
It's a character flaw of my generation. We Baby Boomers think the world began with us. We had cars and cheap air travel, so we assume we were the first generation to really travel. We weren't, and I'm always amazed at how much earlier generations roamed the world. I have no idea where this picture was taken, but it sure as hell wasn't Pittsburgh.
Well, maybe not angry. Perhaps glum would be a better description. One of the things I've noticed in my years of collecting old photographs is that in older photos, many people don't know how to pose. They are often stiff and rarely show emotion. How to pose must be a learned skill.
I've run out of snow photos. Written on the back, "Jan. 1948."
I like the lady on the left. She has chosen style over winter warmth. Now that's commitment.
Well, I don't really know if the weather is bad everywhere, but it is bad in Los Angeles. I can't make up my mind. Does this kid look happy to be outside in the snow?
There's bad weather over most of the United States. Is the man in white trying to blend in? A hunter, perhaps. I feel sorry for the cat that's following him through the snow. Dogs will go anywhere, but the poor cat was probably wondering why he wasn't inside, curled up somewhere warm.
I sometimes wonder about my fascination with other people's photographs. I kind of get the really old stuff, but these street snaps from Hamburg, Germany are from 1989. Hardly antique scenes. Anyway, more true found photography. From a street in Los Angeles. Click on Hamburg Vacation Collection in labels to see the rest of the photos from this lot and get some more info on them. The photographer seems to be interested in the Beer Dorf, or Beer Village, in English. Right next to a Chinese restaurant.
More true found photography. It's amazing what you can find on the streets of Los Angeles when you walk everywhere rather than drive everywhere. Both prints are a bit scuffed up, but what do you expect from something on the sidewalk. When I first saw these two prints I was thinking postcard, but when I picked them up and looked at the backs, well, they weren't. Very likely from a digital camera, and ink jet prints. But where they taken by a professional photographer or an amateur?
I tried. I really did. I just couldn't come up with anything clever to go with The Two Guys post from yesterday. The line in the upper right corner is a crease in the photo.
No, they're not selling pizza or whatever the two guys from Italy sell. My best guess is that this picture was taken before World War 1, but after the turn of the century. From the days when men wore suits for almost everything.
Not in the way we use the word now. This photo of Grandma reading the paper is about the size of my thumbnail. It's a bit out of focus, and if blown up, wouldn't be readable.
This is another one of those photos that has been cut down from a larger image. I always wonder why. An ex-boyfriend, how about an ex-husband? Maybe it just needed to fit in a frame. Written on the back, "Mon. Jan 2, 1939." An interesting year. The Great Depression was winding down, and U.S. involvement in World War 2 was only a few years away.
Good Germans between the wars? I have no idea where this photo was taken, but it's printed on Gevaert Ridax paper, manufactured in Belgium from 1905 to 1959.
There are a lot of photos out there of men in uniform. From the clothing, my best guess is that this photo was taken around the late 1920s to early 1930s. Did this young sailor hope for deployment in Hawaii or the Philippines? Plum assignments before the Japanese attacks that brought the United States into World War 2.
Sometime in the last few days, I went over one million individual page views. And no, considering how long The New Found Photography has been up and running, I have no idea if that's impressive or not. Anyway, an older couple sharing a couch with three younger women. Daughters? That's my guess.
Time for a little bit of color from some true found photography. I'm not going to bother with typing out all sorts of info on part 9. Click on Hamburg Vacation Collection in labels for the back story and to see more images from this lot.
He's wearing wings on his uniform, so he must be a member of the Army Air Corps. But is he headed off to war or getting home, having survived combat missions over Europe? Clearly from the World War 2 era.
It occurs to me that there are those out there who don't understand old-fashioned film photography. That bar at the top of the print is where the film didn't advance far enough in the camera.
Fencing class. The pads should add some protection, but does it still hurt when struck by the tip of a sword?
Written on the back, "Commenc Aout 34." French for begins in August. Or at least, that's what Google Translate says. From what I understand, the French take off almost all of August for a national vacation. Did they do that in 1934? I know a few French people who live here in California, and they love dogs. Were the French dog crazy in 1934?
I've mentioned this before. I didn't start this blog to share my found photography collection with the world; I started it because it was scattered all over the place and had become too large to easily view. Anyway, I found an old box of photos while cleaning out a closet and wasn't sure if I had already posted them. I have, after all, been at this for more than 15 years. So, I laid out a dozen or so of them on the table and went back and had a look at everything that's been posted. It took a while. The idea was that if my small sampling hadn't been added to The New Found Photography, I'd assume that none of them had. None of them had, so the good news is that I don't have to buy any more photos for at least a few months. And no, I don't think this trio is on something.
Just a pretty young woman sitting around outside. My best guess is from the late teens to the mid-1920s. There's a stamp on the back. "ASK FOR (VELVET SHEEN FINISH)"
Who are these guys? With their pocket protectors and their numbered identity badges, well, I think we can say they are not high school teachers. I can't be sure, but I think a couple of guys in the back row, the ones without ties, might be military. Some secret research project, perhaps?
It's hot out, and I wouldn't mind some cool weather. Not snow, but lower temperatures. I can't make out what's written on the front.
What is he, or is it she, doing? Is it some sort of job, or is he just washing up? It looks like a field has been cleared, but for what?
Probably from the late 19th century, or possibly the very early 20th century. It looks like someplace with a tropical feel. The Caribbean, Hawaii, the Philippines.
I've tried to do a bit of research on this photo, and while I'm not 100% sure, I think this is a photo of an M2 Light Tank, made by the Rock Island Arsenal Company that went into production in 1937. It was equipped with a 37mm M5 gun and machine guns. Mostly, it was used for reconnaissance. It was under armed for serious combat operations.
